1.09 The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization

[Tuesday Pajamas]

MONTHLY VINTAGE EPISODE - JUNE 2015
We were doing our vintage rewinds every week but they flew by so quickly, members were not getting a chance to watch and comment within a strict 7-day time frame. So from now we will feature just one episode a month. So no excuses guys Coming up next...

The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization
Originally aired March 17, 2008
Written by Bill Prady & Stephen Engel

"Who wants to party at the topical conference of Bose-Einstein condensates? Everybody but Sheldon. It's Sheldon vs. Leonard as they spar over Sheldon's refusal to present a paper that the two have co-authored." - Check E. Light



How about the timing on this scene guys?? Howard's speech and the delay before the lamp goes on. UTTER BRILLIANCE! The show really hit it's pace with episodes like this.




Episode Trivia.
There is a rumour that this episode was originally intended to feature Howard and Sheldon in conflict instead of Leonard and Sheldon. It was to be called "Cooper-Wolowitz Polarization." Unfortunately the article detailing this factoid no longer exists online, which is a shame.

The name of Leonard & Sheldon’s research paper is “Paradoxical Movement-of-Inertia Changes Due to Putative Super Solids”

Read the HQ summary of this episode HERE.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Another reason I always preferred Sheldon over Leonard was how he warns Penny that the remote control cars can see up her skirt.

What a gent!

[Toad]

I think this is the episode, the opening in particular, that really solidified my love for this show and these characters. The nerdiness, the riff on 2001: A Space Odyssey, the suits.



And now, arguably, the best gif of all time...



And a few others...





Erm. Moving on.

Simon is in fine form here, proving he's equally adept at tongue-twisting, technical dialogue...

Howard: Gentlemen, I am now about to send a signal from this laptop through our local ISP, racing down fibre-optic cable at the speed of light to San Francisco, bouncing off a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to Lisbon, Portugal, where the data packets will be handed off to submerged transatlantic cables terminating in Halifax, Nova-Scotia, and transferred across the continent via microwave relays back to our ISP and the X10 receiver attached to this (clicks mouse, lamp switches on) lamp.

Finally, two interesting bits of episode trivia per the BBT wiki:

Howard at some point is wearing this nifty little belt buckle...



And supposedly the Physicists Gone Wild video was actually uploaded to YouTube by someone calling himself (or herself) 'Wolowizard'.

Classic.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

I love this line.

This is the Sheldon I adore. I'd been waiting for a character like this for years, I believed him. He was the champion of extreme intellect and he didn't need to apologise, in such a charming package as well.

[Gamma]

Penny: Howard, would you like to explain to me why your facebook page has a picture of me sleeping on your shoulder captioned “Me and my Girlfriend?”

Howard: Uh-oh, here comes “the talk.”



Love how Penny copies Sheldon when she tries to blow up Howards head.

[Jenger]

I really liked the beginning of this episode, but I am not a fan of Leonard and Sheldon fighting. I feel like Leonard showing off to Penny and going to do the speech alone, shows that he's willing to take credit for some of Sheldon's work.

I realize that I like the Shenny scenes way more than Lenny. There's just nothing there aside from Leonard pining for Penny. It bothers me that in every scene Leonard is pining for Penny.

Overall, I just don't like this episode.

[CTR69]

It might not be anything special then, but it's gold now





Penny: How do you feel?
Sheldon: I don’t understand the question.

Penny was so nice here, trying to get to Sheldon and comfort him. See? No children's book needed 10 years ago. Be nice to him and he'll be nice to you. But try to screw him over and you'll never forget it.

[Jenger]

It might not be anything special then, but it's gold now





Penny: How do you feel?
Sheldon: I don’t understand the question.

Penny was so nice here, trying to get to Sheldon and comfort him. See? No children's book needed 10 years ago. Be nice to him and he'll be nice to you. But try to screw him over and you'll never forget it.

It's interesting that Penny understood him within a few months of knowing him.  Whereas the Boys still don't completely understand him.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

It's interesting that Penny understood him within a few months of knowing him.  Whereas the Boys still don't completely understand him.

I (and others) tried to explain on the other fansite that Sheldon was deliberately regressed emotionally and intellectually to accommodate the mainstream audience. They also set out to remove his charisma with Penny which made Leonard virtually disappear into the backdrop and then when that wasn’t enough they emasculated him and stuck him with Amy. But of course, by that stage, we were communicating with said mainstream audience and they shouted us down. They were all invested in the removal of Leonard’s biggest rival; Sheldon. Because tptb never intended him to be the hero of the piece. They then set out to make him as ridiculous as they could muster. And Amy was positioned to keep reminding us of that fact. To deny that he was ever that autonomous but make him out to be some half-man who needs to be trained like a friggin monkey.

Jenger’s point about how flimsy Lenny is also spot on. He didn’t do anything to win her.

[Jenger]

I (and others) tried to explain on the other fansite that Sheldon was deliberately regressed emotionally and intellectually to accommodate the mainstream audience. They also set out to remove his charisma with Penny which made Leonard virtually disappear into the backdrop and then when that wasn’t enough they emasculated him and stuck him with Amy. But of course, by that stage, we were communicating with said mainstream audience and they shouted us down. They were all invested in the removal of Leonard’s biggest rival; Sheldon. Because tptb never intended him to be the hero of the piece. They then set out to make him as ridiculous as they could muster. And Amy was positioned to keep reminding us of that fact. To deny that he was ever that autonomous but make him out to be some half-man who needs to be trained like a friggin monkey.

Jenger’s point about how flimsy Lenny is also spot on. He didn’t do anything to win her.

To be fair, it wasn't noticable at first. When you go through the episodes in syndication, you don't realize what's been happening to Sheldon, but it annoys the crap out of me that no one will even listen.

They completely destroyed him, he when from a man who can survive on his own, who relished in being alone and having Lenny spend their nights at Penny's apartment to a man who had to sleep on her couch because he can't handle being alone. How do you deny the way he reveled in being alone? He got around on his own. Even in this episode he gets to and from the talk with no one to help.

And thank you, Lenny is totally weak.